Country club sued over worker’s death

The family of a 33-year-old worker electrocuted at Fox Meadow Country Club last summer has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Michael Krebs, of Fairlawn, died July 10 while working on a damaged irrigation pipe near the fifth hole at Fox Meadow Country Club, 4260 Fox Meadow Drive, Montville Township.

Krebs, an assistant golf course superintendent, was found about 1 p.m. at the bottom of a 10-foot-deep excavation, entangled in electrical wires the powered the course’s irrigation system, according to the lawsuit.

The suit was filed Friday in Medina County Common Pleas Court by his wife and administrator of his estate, Megan Krebs, of Fairlawn, and the couple’s three sons, Jalen, Mason and Noah.

Named as defendants are Fore Golf Management, of Madison, Va.; Fox Meadow Country Club; and an unnamed corporation possibly involved in the work at the country club.

The family’s attorney, Brian D. Kerns, of the Medina law firm of Isaac, Wiles, Burkholder and Teetor, said Kreb’s death was preventable.

The lawsuit charges that “Krebs had no experience with excavation and repair of irrigation lines, was given no relevant safety training to do this type of work, was given no electrical testing equipment to determine if there was electrical power to the excavation site, and he was required to work in close proximity to electrical lines without any safety precautions.”

“His death was a terrible tragedy,” Kerns said. “Sadly, if the employer had observed the most basic safety precautions, his death could have been prevented.”

A spokesman for Fox Meadow Country Club declined to comment.

“The club doesn’t comment on any pending legal matters or club personnel,” said David Snacki, general manager of both Fox Meadow and Weymouth Country Club, Medina Township.

In addition to compensatory damages, the suit asks for additional punitive damages, arguing that the “defendants’ actions or inactions constituted willful, wanton, intentional, deliberate and malicious conduct and a conscious, reckless or flagrant disregard for Michael Krebs’ rights and safety.”